Steve Jobs, 1955-2011: Apple Analysts React

By

Matt Phillips

Oct 6, 2011 8:43 am ET

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As Mark noted last night, Steve Jobs’ legacy goes far beyond his impact on the stock market. But for investors around the world, the passing of the Apple visionary is a massive stock market story too. Here’s what some of the analyst notes are saying this morning after the sad news.

Scott Sutherland, Wedbush Morgan: We expect strong fundamentals to drive shares of Apple much higher over time. While there could be some negative near-term knee jerk reaction to this unfortunate news, we believe the pieces are in place for Apple to greatly exceed expectations for the next couple of years, if not more. We, thus, believe investors should take advantage of any weakness. We would highlight the intraday decline when Mr. Jobs stepped down as CEO only to see Apple shares finish up slightly for the day. Similarly, while unfortunate, we believe this was widely expected and takes another uncertainty out of the stock.

Shaw Wu, Sterne Agee: We are buyers on potential weakness in AAPL shares as we believe the company has transformed itself into one of the key platforms of the future with iCloud and the App Store poised to benefit in the upcoming decade from a company that produced hot products. In the near-term, the stock may remain volatile as Tim Cook gains confidence from investors.

Brian White, Ticonderoga Securities: Steve Jobs’ acceptance of nothing but the highest quality work has been thoroughly ingrained in the Apple culture during his tenure, creating a team that we believe will continue to thrive. Clearly, there is no one like Steve Jobs in the tech world and Apple will never have another Steve Jobs at the helm, however, we believe he has created an incredibly talented team with Tim Cook as CEO that can lead Apple to continued success for many years to come. As Steve Jobs wrote in his August 24 resignation letter: “I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it.” We agree.

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